349 349: A Broken Family
Cole stepped out of the shower, with a tired look on his face. He was sore and his balance was off and all over the place due to the amount of time he had spent in space. Longer than any other time in his entire life. It took a while for someone to get used to that kind of thing, even with how advanced technology was.
Much more so it was weird that he was affected, Cole had assumed his [Demonic Constitution] had made a lot resilient to things like this. But it looks like it wasn't so. He quickly got dressed, a colorful silk shirt, black suit pants and shoes. A simple black belt and a silver neck chain, an old school leather strap wristwatch, and a diamond stud for his left ear.
The racial tattoos of the Raen races swirled upwards to his neck, a glossy sheen of black with red, blue, and purple accents. He took one look at the mirror, he looked good, though his hair was a mess. But there wasn't much that could be done for it. He nodded to himself and stepped out of his room.
He met Tehila just coming out of her's, dressed impeccably as usual, only funny enough she was not in her normal suit and tie get up. Honestly, all that time it made her seem as if she was just a secretary to his family and not a daughter in law. But she was wearing jeans and steel toed boots. Then she was wearing a crop top with her stomach exposed, Cole raised an eyebrow and looked up at her.
"Are you going somewhere?" he asked, his voice taking on an edge.
"I would ask you the same question, where are you going looking all dashing and cute." she asked back, not even bothering to answer his question as she used her to change the topic, Cole narrowed his eyes even more. He saw what she did there, and he would not let her get away with it.
"I'm going to plant a dungeon that would connect our territory on the third floor to our territory here. Now where are you going?" he asked again.
"I'm not going anywhere Cole, this is my house cant I get to look good in my own house?" she said to him in amusement as she turned away, her tail moving to wrap around his waist and pulling him along. He cursed softly, he always kept forgetting that they had that extra appendage now.
He followed her downstairs where he found his parents sitting on the dinning table and whispering to themselves softly. Cole did not want to interrupt but they raised their heads the moment he stepped into the room . he grimaced when he saw how red his mother's eyes were... she probably has been crying. The deluge of grief coming from her was too great, that Tehila stumbled and Cole had to stretch out his hand to keep her steady.
"Are you guys going out?" his mother asked, her voice hoarse as Cole felt his heart wrench hard. It was one thing to see a person you love in pain, it was another to be able to feel that pain in equal if not greater measure. It was taking a lot for both Cole and Tehila to not start crying themselves.
"Oh I'm sorry Baby, I forgot you could feel emotions now…..I'm sorry…..it's just so hard…..my family is broken."
Cole shook, he stepped forwards and held his mother as she cried. He might be pushing as hard as he could but that did not change the fact that he and his family were dealing with a lot of pain and he along with a few others are responsible for most of it.
Cole wished it was different, he wished his elder brother had never been killed from his second brother's jealousy, he wished he never found out those who were involved, or at least he found out all who were involved…. perhaps that way he would have avoided killing his cousins and setting his aunt off.
He really wished he did not have the blood of his own family in his hands. He was fucked up on a massive scale, yet the pain was not ending. His revenge feels so hollow now that he knew the truth, heck even before that. He was like a man cast adrift with no idea which direction he needed to go.
He tries his best not to think about it, but it was there. Locked behind a door of insanity, scratching to be let out and the guilt and consequences, self loathing and disgust he had would be poured out. Family was supposed to be absolute, but theirs was a mess.
He held her for as long as he could while his father and Tehila kept watch. She fell asleep in his arms, the toll her grief had taken on her body finally causing it to shut down. Cole looked up at his father as he stepped forwards to take his wife. As he carried her about to go up the stairs, he turned to Cole and said.
"I'm in pain son, more than you can ever know, and I want justice. Your mother wants justice, you know what kind of family we are, we do not take slights easily. But this….. this is hard, I want someone to pay so bad and so does she, but we don't want to see our children fighting each other, you two are all we have let.
Its hard that your brother had died for nothing but sibling rivalry, and its hard about all the things you went through. But in the end what can we do...He's my son…..Cole he's Your Brother! There's no coming back from that, so think carefully about how you want to approach this situation and consider the hell you would be living in…..and consider also the fact that your brother is already living in it."